According to Their Plots, Jane Austen’s Novels Are Not Comic Romances with Happy Endings

Cynthia Whissell

doi:10.5539/ells.v8n2p10

Abstract

In order to answer two specific questions (“Do the plots of Jane Austen’s novels match the plot of Cinderella?” and “Do Austen’s novels include a comic or happy ending, defined as one where the author employs more pleasant language at the end of the novel than she did at the beginning?”), Jane Austen’s six major novels and Cinderella were scored for the pleasantness of their language with the Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009). The answer to both questions, based on results of regression analyses and means comparisons, is negative. Austen’s novels are not variants of the Cinderella story, nor do they have the type of endings that characterize comic romances. Cinderella is very pleasant and has a distinct happy ending. In contrast, Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey are less pleasant and have equivocal endings, while Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility have tragic (relatively unpleasant) endings. Persuasion employs the least pleasant language overall but has a happy ending.

Highlights

1.1 General PurposeThe research described in this paper employs quantitative analyses of natural language to answer two related questions “Do the plots of Jane Austen’s novels match the comic romance plot of the Cinderella story?” and “Do Austen’s novels include comic endings, defined as those where the author employs more fortunate or pleasant language at the end of the novel than she did at the beginning?” The instrument employed to answer these questions is the Dictionary of Affect in Language
In order to answer two specific questions (“Do the plots of Jane Austen’s novels match the plot of Cinderella?” and “Do Austen’s novels include a comic or happy ending, defined as one where the author employs more pleasant language at the end of the novel than she did at the beginning?”), Jane Austen’s six major novels and Cinderella were scored for the pleasantness of their language with the Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009)
The only novel including a more pleasant last chapter was Persuasion (48.19, 49.88; t=-2.12, p=.027). These results suggest that a happy ending is not characteristic of at least three of Austen’s six novels (Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Emma), and that results for two novels (Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey) are equivocal

Summary

Introduction

1.1 General PurposeThe research described in this paper employs quantitative analyses of natural language to answer two related questions “Do the plots of Jane Austen’s novels match the comic romance plot of the Cinderella story?” and “Do Austen’s novels include comic (happy) endings, defined as those where the author employs more fortunate or pleasant language at the end of the novel than she did at the beginning?” The instrument employed to answer these questions is the Dictionary of Affect in Language. Like many Harlequin® romances of the 20th and 21st centuries (Whissell, 1998), Austen’s works could be accused of telling the same story over and over again This possibility is noted and dismissed by Hinnant (2006), who points to variability among plots in terms of the difficulty that the heroine must overcome in order to get married. The supernatural helper has often been the author who crams couples into wedded bliss whether the plot of the novel has been developing in that direction or not In this vein, one might recall Marianne and Colonel Brandon’s abrupt transition to marriage at the end of Sense and Sensibility, or Fanny’s very, very, late success in gaining Edmund’s attention as a ells.ccsenet.org

Methods

Results

Conclusion